Spencer and his wife Kat came over for some pictures. I am doing more preparation now trying to get a better feel for what type of picture would suit a particular person.

When I met Spencer I was struck by a few things. He has a mustache and long side burns as well as gauged ear lobes. He is a funny guy who can look like a shop keeper from england in the 1800's or maybe Sherlock Holmes.

I wanted to create some interest and a little tension with the crop...it is fun to experiment.

When we met I suggested the Sherlock Holmes approach and he agreed. I went to a costume store and picked up a top hat, cane and the glasses and Spencer had the formal suit from his wedding.

The shot was set up to be like a formal portrait in the 1800's. Stiff, dispassionate in sepia with some grain so that it could have been an old time portrait.

Lighting was from mainly one light on our left with a small amount of fill. Some extra sharpening was done on his glasses and beard.

I calculate out the depth of field now so as to avoid losing sharpness in any of the image. With the 85mm focal length at 5.6 aperture and a distance of about 10 feet the depth of field is about 13 inches which is about the minimum I could have used.

I ran some experiments on ISO and found that I could use 800-1000 with the 5DII and have acceptable noise. I used 500 here because Spencer held still which gave me a shutter speed of 1/40 second. If he was moving I would have used about 1/80 of a second and needed ISO 1000.

I like and complement you on your planning and calculations. No wonder you almost always present excellent images. How do you calculate the distance of the DOF? is there a formula? One minor observation, his tie could be tightened a little more. TFS
Best
Vic

Hi Roger,definately a sharp portrait,not sure if I would call it a Sherlock Homes type,as Sherlock's hats, were more like a tweedy type hunting cap,so to me, this is more like Mr. Watson perhaps? I hope you don't mind but I did a WS to compare, if the subjects whole left arm were visible,would it improve the composition or not.Please excuse my PP work, as it's not the best,but it allows for a reasonable comparison.
What do you think?
Best Regards

Hi Roger,
Perfect sharpness and good use of light! I like the original framing of this rather funny character. Good use of a single side light from the left and just that bit of fill-in to highlight the right side of the model.
As usual professional work bearing your signature.
Well done,

Olá Roger
Spencer is a charcter very curious...he can be who our imagination wants and it is cool and interesting.It is a good portrait with fun , for me he is Phileas Fogg ...he seem to have great adventures.A good B/W choice. Cool and good.
Um abraço
teresa

Bom dia Roger,
There are neighborhoods that are very expressive and that help us understand how we feel about a picture. This is the case here, your picture is near to a bird of prey well captured by Parasbhalla and I understand that you have captured the proud and selfness of Spencer so much like that made by Paras and under a similar light. We have two masterpieces together.
R.